9 Jan
2004
9 Jan
'04
2:10 p.m.
Hello,
I just found a link to this wonderful looking package last night
when reading a old thread on slashdot about "Ghost 4 Unix".
First of all, a big thanks for this effort. The world needs
this solution in open source form, and you've done it!
Up to now, I've been using something like g4u, except based
on KNOPPIX, to do the imaging over dd, ftp, wget, and gzip.
It works well for small numbers of machines, but I'd like the
solve the problem for imaging perhaps 30 to 40 at once.
I'm just at the initial stage of investigating udpcast, and
reading over the web site for any instructions I may have missed...
So far I have these initial questions.
1. Is there a howto for disk cloning written already?
2. I don't see any reference to the steps required for creating the disk
image file of the template machine, or is this not how it is done?
That is, I have a template machine ready to clone, what are the
steps to make an image file of the hard disk, that upd-sender can use?
Should I continue to use my equivalent to g4u to upload a gzipped
disk dump (dd) file by FTP?
3. Will the linux kernel enable DMA on the hard drive? I found DMA
(via hdparm) made a big performance difference in my KNOPPIX
based solution, but then some kernels seem to automatically
enable DMA anyway.
Regards,
--Donald Teed
9 Jan
9 Jan
4:40 p.m.
begin Friday 09 January 2004 15:10, Donald Teed quote:
Hello,
I just found a link to this wonderful looking package last night
when reading a old thread on slashdot about "Ghost 4 Unix".
First of all, a big thanks for this effort. The world needs
this solution in open source form, and you've done it!
Up to now, I've been using something like g4u, except based
on KNOPPIX, to do the imaging over dd, ftp, wget, and gzip.
It works well for small numbers of machines, but I'd like the
solve the problem for imaging perhaps 30 to 40 at once.
I'm just at the initial stage of investigating udpcast, and
reading over the web site for any instructions I may have missed...
So far I have these initial questions.
1. Is there a howto for disk cloning written already?
It's all on the website.
How to use the udpcast boot disks: http://udpcast.linux.lu/#useboot
How to make the disks: http://udpcast.linux.lu/#makeboot
2. I don't see any reference to the steps required
for creating the disk
image file of the template machine, or is this not how it is done?
That is, I have a template machine ready to clone, what are the
steps to make an image file of the hard disk, that upd-sender can use?
Should I continue to use my equivalent to g4u to upload a gzipped
disk dump (dd) file by FTP?
This URL describes how to make the boot disks:
http://udpcast.linux.lu/#makeboot
If you want to make an udpcast tranfer to/from a file, use the
command-line version of the machine were you want to store the
file/read the file from:
http://udpcast.linux.lu/#cmdline
For instance, to get one machines image to a file, do the following:
[A] On the machine itself: boot up the udpcast floppy or CD, just like
you would for a normal transfer. Chose sender
[B] On the machine were you want to store the image file: launch
"udp-receiver -f image-file"
For restoring such an image to a a bunch of receivers, just do the
following:
[A] On the machine where the image is, start "udp-sender -f image-file"
[B] On the machines where the image should be restored to, boot up the
floppy or cd, and chose receiver.
3. Will the linux kernel enable DMA on the hard drive?
I found DMA
Yes, it does.
(via hdparm) made a big performance difference in
my KNOPPIX
based solution, but then some kernels seem to automatically
enable DMA anyway.
I know. Some versions of Knoppix (or maybe even 3.3?) left DMA
disabled. Argh!
As far as I know, the reason for this is that certain CD-Rom drives
cannot handle DMA from/to CD. Certain Suse CDs also left DMA from/to
CD off during installation.
Regards,
--Donald Teed
Regards,
Alain
5:42 p.m.
Thanks for your response and help...
On Fri, 9 Jan 2004, Alain Knaff wrote:
It's all on the website.
There is lots of information, but I would not consider it
a howto at this stage. A howto should list the steps to
take in order, and with all of the details filled in, with
practical examples of the commands and configs. For example,
much of the gentoo documentation meets this definition.
Someone that barely understood what was going on should have
success with such a howto. For someone like me it fills
in the gaps for the 12% of what is going on that I don't get
from reading the documentation on all of the granular parts.
In other words, a series of man pages on each of the components
does not paint a complete picture of how to use them together
to acheive a goal, which is the view from 10,000 feet I'm looking for.
Perhaps when I'm done I'll try to contribute something
along these lines, to get it moving at least.
For instance, to get one machines image to a file, do
the following:
[A] On the machine itself: boot up the udpcast floppy or CD, just like
you would for a normal transfer. Chose sender
[B] On the machine were you want to store the image file: launch
"udp-receiver -f image-file"
More examples in the documentation would probably help.
When you say -f takes a file, it is difficult to know whether that
means /dev/hda or something like /usr/templates/IBM_master_template.gz
since everything in Unix is a file.
In the case of udp-receiver on the server, I'd think it should be
something like /usr/templates/IBM_master_template.gz
Now the reverse trip, to make the clones...
The server would run something like:
udp-sender -f /usr/templates/IBM_master_template.gz --min-clients 20
(assuming i want it to start after all 20 machines have connected)
while the target machines would boot a floppy or off the PXE to
launch the receiver built into it.
Do I have this right?
It is partly difficult to understand because of the
floppy menu not forming a visible part of the udpcast
source package and man pages. Coming from the g4u I am
expecting a shell script and executables on the floppy,
but I have yet to run it.
Regards,
--Donald Teed
6:53 p.m.
Donald Teed wrote:
On Fri, 9 Jan 2004, Alain Knaff wrote:
It is whatever you want to clone. In your case, it seems to be the
template file that you want to send.
For instance, to get one machines image to a file,
do the following:
[A] On the machine itself: boot up the udpcast floppy or CD, just like
you would for a normal transfer. Chose sender
[B] On the machine were you want to store the image file: launch
"udp-receiver -f image-file"
More examples in the documentation would probably help.
When you say -f takes a file, it is difficult to know whether that
means /dev/hda or something like /usr/templates/IBM_master_template.gz
since everything in Unix is a file. In the case of udp-receiver on the server, I'd
think it should be
something like /usr/templates/IBM_master_template.gz
I think you mean udp-sender on the server ...
Now the reverse trip, to make the clones...
The server would run something like:
udp-sender -f /usr/templates/IBM_master_template.gz --min-clients 20
(assuming i want it to start after all 20 machines have connected)
while the target machines would boot a floppy or off the PXE to
launch the receiver built into it.
Do I have this right?
I've not used the floppy because it doesn't come with my SCSI driver,
but you want the target file on the client to be something like
/dev/hda. You'll also want to uncompress that image file before you
send it, unless you're just trying to transfer the image itself as a file.
It is partly difficult to understand because of the
floppy menu not forming a visible part of the udpcast
source package and man pages. Coming from the g4u I am
expecting a shell script and executables on the floppy,
but I have yet to run it.
You have yet to run the floppy? It asks you what to do...
On Fri, 9 Jan 2004, Alain Knaff wrote:
>[A] On the machine itself: boot up the udpcast
floppy or CD, just like
>you would for a normal transfer. Chose sender
>[B] On the machine were you want to store the image file: launch
>"udp-receiver -f image-file"
[A] above implies that if there is a 'sender' option on the floppy,
there is probably also a 'receiver' option. This is the one you'd want.
On the server, I think you have the basic idea down. Again, not
having used the floppy, I don't know if you can have the floppy
udp-receiver pipe through gunzip before writing. You'll have to try it
and see.
rgds,
Chris
7018
days inactive
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3 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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Alain Knaff -
Christopher Curtis -
Donald Teed